FX’s Tyrant Returns With More Middle Eastern Intrigue

Season 3 of the FX thriller Tyrant opens as former Cali pediatrician Bassam “Barry” Al-Fayeed (Adam Rayner) assumes the presidency of a country he left decades before. “What happens when our perception of being a good person comes under fire?” asks executive producer Howard Gordon, “and can Barry avoid the temptations of power?”

Those who disagree with Barry’s agenda include U.S. general William Cogswell (The Good Wife’s Chris Noth), arriving in the rebel-plagued fictional country of Abuddin to eventually meet with ambitious former first lady Leila (Moran Attias); nonviolent Islamist Sheik Al-Qadi (Khaled Abol Naga) and his fiery wife, Nafisa (Annet Mahendru); and jihadist Ihab Rashid (Alexander Karim), who seeks revenge against Barry for the death of his wife. “The students want a progressive society and the jihadis want to provoke a civil war,” Gordon says. “We’re telling the story of so many countries in the Middle East.”